The Tech Report reports AMD Quad FX processors and accompanying motherboard are available in retail. All is not well for AMD’s Quad FX platform, though. While the Athlon 64 FX-70 series and ASUS L1N64-SLI WS are available, there’s a steep price premium on processors and the required motherboard.

There are only two retailers that carry the necessary Quad FX products: Newegg and ZipZoomFly. AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors of all speed grades are available from Newegg while ZipZoomFly only has the Athlon 64 FX-70 in stock.

Obtaining the required ASUS L1N64-SLI WS is a challenge as neither retailer has it in stock. Pricing of the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS is $429.99 and $379.99 from Newegg and ZipZoomFly respectively, $30-80 higher than the expected $349.99 MSRP.

Nevertheless, AMD Quad FX parts are indeed available in retail. Expect to pay a $129-181 premium to have AMD’s power flagship.

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It should be compatible with K8L and native quad-core parts, meaning six months or so down the road one could have 8 high-end cores with (hopefully for AMD) competitive performance.

Cost is not a factor for any of these platforms I wouldn't imagine.. if one is willing to spend so much for quad-core Kentsfield or Quad FX, then a potential Quad FX customer wouldn't be concerned about the upgrade cost, just that it'd be more convenient then the typical Intel deal (which would involve a whole new motherboard for such an upgrade). Probably also because only pro's with a need for that many threads being actively executed would buy such a beast.

It's close enough that it's a mere matter of preference, more or less.

quote: It should be compatible with K8L and native quad-core parts, meaning six months or so down the road one could have 8 high-end cores with (hopefully for AMD) competitive performance.

So six to twelve months from now you can throw out your dual core CPUs and buy new CPUs.

You won't be able to re-use QuadFX CPUs because they are 1208-pin unregistered DDR, which means they won't work on a normal socket AM2 mobo, or on a normal socket F server mobo--that means you'll just have to throw them away. No one will want them.

On the other hand, if you get a Kentsfield now, you can at least sell the it when you want to trade up later. And you will probably find that 1 45nm quad core CPU from Intel is better than 2 65nm native quad core CPUs from AMD. If you're playing games, 4 fast cores will be better than 8 almost as fast cores.

You will probably even be better off with one quad-core K8L CPU than 2, because of the increased memory latency in the 4x4 platform (AMD's biggest advantage over Intel is lost with 4x4!), and the fact that most games can barely take advantage of 4 cores, let alone 8.

If you're a professional who wants 8 cores, you should buy a 2-way Clovertown setup today (like a Mac Pro). Why wait 6 months for an unknown product that probably won't be much better than a Mac Pro today? You're a pro. Spend the coin, buy a good computer today, and get busy. Be productive.

If you're a gamer, stick with a 1-socket platform that will have quad core parts (775 or AM2) and spend your money on a pair of 8800s or R600s and a big monitor. 4x4 is a gimmick.

The only worse value for the dollar would be buying ultra high end "emasculator" DDR2 RAM modules with silly heat sinks. Those are like tiny dogs for the Paris Hiltons of the overclocker world.

And if I'm totally wrong, and 4x4 with quad-core parts is awesome, you can always buy a 4x4 mobo in the future. Buying one today doesn't give you a head start on everyone else. It's a big waste of money.

Well, won't be so sure about that. Remember, even Kentsfield _is_ bandwith-starved. Even K8-based 65nm quad would be able to match its performance. Not to mention K8L with >10% performance bump...

The battle for mainstream is 3GHz Conroe vs. 3GHz K8 and by the end of 2007 will most probably be 3.3GHz Penryn vs. 3.2GHz K8L. It is dominated by Intel now, and will be a close race by the end of 2007.
However on the 4C front I do not see Intel catching AMD before Q1 08.

quote: However on the 4C front I do not see Intel catching AMD before Q1 08.

Please explain. I do not understand. By 4C do you mean quad-core? If so how do you figure Intel will only "catch" up to AMD by Q1 08 when last I checked AMD doesn't even have a quad-core cpu in the market yet let alone have any real benchmarks available. No one has any idea how the AMD quad cores will perform. So your statement is very presumptuous. If I understood you correct of course.

AMD has already stated that they are not interested in the multi-core approach or race, if you will, with Intel. This statement leads me to believe that AMD will forfeit the desktop x86 mainstream performance crown to Intel and focus on their real winners and current cash cow the Opteron, and the future with integrated graphics/cpu + chipset market which AMD hope to become a very large player as seen with the acquisition of ATI.

On the desktop front, I believe AMD realizes that they just can't compete with Intel's enormous wealth and resources. Even for the past few years while AMD had the performance crown securely in their pocket (K8 vs. P4), they still had a very hard time gaining considerable market share from Intel. Reason: They just couldn't properly market their superior product because of Intel's MASSIVE marketing power. Mainstream users just didn't understand the potential of K8. Now that Intel is back in front with C2D, I think AMD has given up for the long term for the mainstream performance desktop.

AMD's biggest supporters were PC enthusiasts. Unfortunately for the desktop industry, the enthusiast market, while nice (as seen by boutique PC shops like Alienware, Voodoo etc.) is not a cash cow. However, the server industry is, and for the most part the people making the buying decision on servers are pc enthusiasts and understood the potential of K8 and jumped all over the Opteron. These people are not as susceptible to marketing as mainstream users, thus negating Intel's massive marketing advantage. Opteron still has a very large advantage over Core 2 in SMP operations.

Anyway this is just my opinion based on the news out of AMD recently. I definitely have more chance of being totally off base here, since exiting the mainstream performance desktop market is a pretty drastic measure.

"You won't be able to re-use QuadFX CPUs because they are 1208-pin unregistered DDR, which means they won't work on a normal socket AM2 mobo, or on a normal socket F server mobo--that means you'll just have to throw them away. No one will want them. "

Incorrect! There is an AM2 Quad comming. Not sure if its native though or slapped 2 Brisbanes together.